This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy was my first dog and he thought the garden was his, even though I did all the work. But Skippy always stood by me and was a great friend. Now Suzie and Charley follow in his footsteps and garden with me. We're located near Boston (USDA zone 6A). I have a community plot, a backyard vegetable garden, fruit trees and berry bushes, chickens and bees. I use sustainable organic methods and do my best to grow all of my family's vegetables myself.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Long Island cheese pumpkin

The stem of my big early Long Island cheese pumpkin was broken off completely today when I went to my community plot. This pumpkin set fruit midway up on my fence and the weight of it was more than the vine could hold. The stem broke part way through a couple weeks ago. It looks like its nearly ripe. Its mostly beige colored, with only a few areas of greenish tint. Very early for a pumpkin. I'll keep it on my kitchen counter for a month before I use it and I think it will fully ripen. This is supposed to be a very good tasting pumpkin.

I was pleased to notice today that the vines at the edges of my pumpkin patch are looking very dense and lots of small pumpkins are setting. The center of the patch looks bad. I guess that's just because the oldest leaves aren't so healthy any more. I also picked a fully ripe ad bright orange Baby Pam pumpkin today. Several more are ripening on the vines.

What a bummer! :( Ripe squash will get sweeter with storage but if it's not mature, you're pretty much stuck with what you have. Check to see how hard the rind is - if you can't puncture it with a fingernail then it may be mature enough to store. Otherwise consider it a big summer squash! I had a Penn. Dutch Crookneck squash that got broken off; it was just the palest orange inside and was delicious cooked with onions, garlic and ginger, with oyster and soy sauce. :)